In all four cases, the team was down by at least 13 points at halftime. In other words, these games didn't turn into blowouts late -- they were over quickly.

There's no question that a blowout loss in Week 1 is a bad sign. But can teams recover and still make the playoffs? Yes, of course they can -- and they are even more likely to recover if they are already coming off good seasons.

We'll define a blowout loss here as three or more touchdowns, so 21 or more points. From 1983-2010, 17 teams suffered a blowout loss in Week 1 despite coming off a season of double-digit wins. These teams eventually averaged 7.4 wins in those seasons. That sounds bad, but teams with similar Week 1 losses that weren't coming off double-digit-win seasons averaged just 5.4 wins.

To read more about why the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Falcons can bounce back, you must be an ESPN Insider.